Underneath the Crystal Moon
a/n: I do not own Labyrinth. And the trials and tribulations of I, Liz aka WickedGame, continue. I have had barely any time to write, and am only up to chapter 5 on this story as a result. Hopefully I can get a substantial amount of writing in later today and I hope to post another chapter on Saturday maybe. Stay faithful!
Part Two: Damien
Chapter 3
Xen awoke in the morning when her maid, Lavina, opened her drapes. Lavina was a sprite, and she was one of the few sprites who did not go to war with Xandra. She was small, but very businesslike for a sprite. They usually were too busy playing pranks and causing trouble, but Lavina had a serious streak.
"Lavina, could you please awaken His Highness?" Xen asked as she stretched. She wore nothing to bed, just as she preferred to wear nothing all the time.
"No need Your Majesty, he has been awake for some time now," Lavina told her as she made the bed.
Xen stared at her in shock and then made her way to her balcony. She liked to feel the cool air on her skin before she put on the tunic she would wear during the day. What was he doing up? The sun had barely risen, and he had already been up? What the heck was wrong with him? If it were not for court and business, she would sleep until the sun would not let her anymore.
As Xen stepped out into the morning sun, she found herself ducking quickly back into her room. The prince was below her balcony, working sword forms on her grass. She threw on a light robe and stepped back out to watch him. He was shirtless, but wearing black pants. His feet were bare. He had a large sword, and was flowing gracefully from form to form. His footwork was intricate, and he almost looked liked a dancer as he concentrated. She could see the sweat on his skin, and noted his hair looked wet. She hated to interrupt him, but they needed to eat and then get out.
"Good morning Prince!" she called out. He stopped abruptly and bowed to her.
"Good morning Your Majesty," he said in his deep voice.
"Xen. If we are going to be spending this much time together you can call me Xen. Have you had breakfast?" she asked him.
"No, not yet," Damien said as he sheathed the sword.
"Come on in, we will eat quickly before we leave," Xen told him. She walked inside and donned her green tunic. It was short, only coming to mid-thigh. She pulled her curls up and secured them in a bun at the top of her head. No crown today, just a wreath of flowers on top of her head. She went barefoot, and she made her way to the dining room.
Damien was waiting for her, already dry and changed. He wore black boots, and black breeches. His shirt was white and open at his throat.
If he wasn't so damned male I would actually be rather attracted to him, Xen thought. But then she said the first thing that came to mind, "Damned Fae magic"
Damien cocked his head, questioning her statement.
"You were sweating and working out. Two moments later you are dry, clean, and clothed. It's not fair," Xen smiled at him.
"I wonder what your basis for comparison is?" Damien asked instinctively.
Xen let out a twinkling laugh and sat down in the chair he held out for her.
Breakfast was small, but Damien did not seem to mind. Xen did not eat meat, so almost everything was fruit, vegetable, or grain.
"If you wish, I could send for some meat," Xen told her guest.
"Not necessary," Damien told her. Xen continued to eat.
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An hour or so later they found themselves hiking through the forest, with Xen cooing at every tree. They spoke to her, and she listened. They were so old, and so wise. Damien just watched her as she tilted her head this way and that. She was a pretty little thing. She seemed to move like she was floating. She stopped every once and a while to scamper up a tree. He watched her, enchanted, as she would lay her hands on a trunk and put her forehead on the tree, communicating in a way only she could understand.
They reached a glade and Xen stopped to rest.
"There are so few left," Xen murmured.
Damien just looked at her. Xen smiled at him before she began to explain.
"When Xandra took us to war, she took about eighty five percent of our citizens. Almost all the dryads, who help keep the trees around. A lot of the nymphs, who take care of the land while they enchant men to breed. And the sprites. A lot of the sprites, because Xandra felt they were expendable. She was not a good queen. But she was the queen, so they followed her. And then your mother killed them all. Poof! Ash. Killed by the very thing we forest folk fear the most, fire," Xen stared out into the distance, while twiddling a blade of grass between her fingers.
"Do you blame her?" Damien asked quietly.
"No! No, no. She had no choice. Xandra would have killed her, and all she held dear. Xandra would have killed you. I bear Queen Sarah no grudge. I told Xandra it was a folly to go to war. I told her Nogrod would eventually betray her," Xen drifted off again, "Well, we should continue. It is going to take us until the end of the day to reach the edge of my kingdom, such as it is"
They walked some more, Xen continuing to listen to the voices only she could hear, and Damien watching with interest.
As the sun started to droop on the horizon, they reached the southern edge of her forest. Xen gasped and started to cry as they saw the damage. The trees were dead. Acres of trees.
"Are you all right?" Damien asked her.
"So much pain. They all died. There was no one here to take care of them. Not enough of us to hold them here," Xen cried, and wrapped her arms around her knees.
"Let's retreat a bit back into the woods. I will build a fire, and we can set up camp," Damien told the weeping queen.
She looked up at him, eyes red from crying, and nodded. She rose from the ground and walked with him back into the forest.
Damien found dead wood lying around the forest, and stacked it in a small clearing. He built the campfire, and went to light it with a crystal he conjured from his hand.
"Keep it small. The trees do not like fire. They will leave us be for now, and shelter us, but we must keep the fire small," Xen told him. He nodded, and gently brought the fire to life.
"Your sister could have done that with a thought, and your mother too," Xen told him.
"There is no such thing as a Lord of the Flame," Damien shrugged.
They ate some food from the packs and then sat next to the fire drinking coffee.
"I have to find a way to repopulate. We are all so spread out, and so wary of one another right now. We need to get together and we need to mate," Xen stated, and saw Damien's head shoot up to look at her.
"Do you think so?" Damien asked.
"Did you see those trees? If we do not repopulate, that will happen to the entire kingdom. It is so empty here, the whole kingdom feel empty. I feel so insignificant. I am only one, and I have to find a way to makes us many," Xen said sadly. Her thoughts turned inward again, trying to think of what they could do. Trying to save her kingdom like any good queen would. Then she remembered something, "That might work"
Damien looked at her, an unsaid question in his eyes.
"There is a ritual. It has not been done for many centuries, but it is a mating ritual. Well, more like a dance. There is a drink that is prepared, and then we start the dance. The drink is a sort of sexual stimulant. It is not something I like to do, forcing my subjects to mate, but it needs to be done. We all have an obligation to the land," Xen told him.
"When?" Damien asked.
"A week, maybe two," Xen told him.
Later that night, Xen was still awake in her blankets on the ground as she thought back on her coronation.
There was almost no one there. Jareth, Sarah, Aaron, and Toby were there. The High Lord was there. But other than that, none of her subjects had shown. They were all still hiding from her, hiding from the war and from the reality of the situation.
She wore a long green dress, made of gauze, and she wore her reddish blonde curls down. The hair brushed the top of her buttocks as she stepped in front of the High Lord. She knelt in front of him, and he held her formal crown in the air.
"I crown you Queen Xen, Queen of the Trees," the High Lord intoned, and he lowered the crown on her anointed head. Then it was over. She wanted to cry. She had been left with nothing. Xandra had raped the kingdom, making her just as bad as Nogrod and his evil dwarfs.
Xen felt herself tear up, and she cried herself to sleep.
Damien looked on, feeling no real need to sleep himself. He felt helpless as the little queen cried for her kingdom, or what was left of it. But there was nothing he could do except help her as he was assigned to do, and hope that would be enough for the pretty little thing that could not shut her mouth.